


The Stolen Star

by SummerstastyFlames



Category: Homestuck
Genre: #evilbitchsisters, Gaia - Freeform, IT'S LONG, Innocent, SBURB, Safe For Work, mild language occasionally, minor quadrant shenanigans sorta, original session
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-11
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 06:30:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1769080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerstastyFlames/pseuds/SummerstastyFlames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story with the Homestuck plot but with new characters. They play the game and find their own problems that they have to work through. they live in Gaia, an integrated world with both humans and trolls, and have to deal with species hate from both sides.  this was kind of a writing exercise for me, where i basically didnt think ahead in any way shape or form, so a lot of it went in direction i didnt predict. I'm proud of it nevertheless, and i hope you enjoy. it's going to end up being at least 50k words too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The planet is Gaia. It may once have been called earth, many years ago. A change in government in an alien race caused Gaia to be taken inhabited by a civilized alien race called trolls, rather than eradicated like it otherwise might have been. 

The planet Gaia has by now been divided into three portions. Two types of separated communities, segregated from the world by giant walls that would encase the countries. These types of living would have either all humans, to live and govern on their own, or all trolls to live and govern on their own.  
The main part of the world, however was a mix of the two species. They determined class and power by a mix of the two ways of each species. Trolls still wore their symbols and divided themselves by blood colour, and they would still cull mutants, and continue to live by their culture. The humans still went by money and aristocracy, however they've taken some measures to make it easier for the trolls to tell. Money class had certain colors assigned to them, to correspond with the trolls' class colors. It's not necessary for humans to flaunt their wealth or lack of it, but generally the trolls would take people more serious as a rule. Trolls themselves were allotted a certain amount of money dependent on their blood castes, so it could be more or less even. 

 

March 18  
A young girl stands in her bedroom. What is her name?

Your name is Elelin Stamie. You are seven and a half sweeps old and you are very good at DRAWING. Your blood colour is red, because you are a HUMAN. You live in an integrated world along with a race called TROLLS. You enjoy whimsy very much, and though you do not have any troll features, you have a tendency to dress up like one. You can also be VERY EXCITABLE. 

You enjoy drawing and are VERY GOOD AT IT. You draw people on your tablet, and have nearly perfected drawing PERFECTLY REALISTIC. It's beginning to become difficult to tell the difference between your art and real pictures. However you personally tend to degrade you work, and don't always see better qualities, as you can be rather ANAL about details. 

You are very detailed oriented, and are very whimsical. You enjoy fun and pranks, and dressing up in funny costumes. Your favourite costume is one of a troll, and you very much enjoy bugging people while in said costume. You also have a lot of fun online, where there are less consequences to your antics. 

You are in a quite successful moiraleigance with a higher blooded troll. It is successful because while it seems like she is the one who always has to calm you down, you are very good at calming her down when she has one of her FITS. 

You have always been VERY BAD with technology, to the point where, a few years ago you found out that you were actually glitching the tech you were around due to some magnoneurological imbalance in your brain. Probably. You have since learned to HONE your newfound ability, and can now make any type of technology glitch at will, as well as prevent yourself from making your computer glitch unless you want it to. You haven't yet, however figured out how to make anything glitch a certain way, making every imperfection you cause to be a bit like RUSSIAN ROULETTE. 

Because of this handy affliction, your strife specibus folder is filled with many random tech objects you can make glitch and use as a weapon. Since that doesn't always go as planned, your main weapon is a simple rapier. Using it is something that has happened numerous times due to people being unappreciative of your troll cosplay and act. 

Your troll tag is StarkDressed and you Tend to speak in a very quick and excitable manneR. 

Since troll culture has been mixed with human culture for so long, humans have learned many aspects of troll culture and they human culture. For example, many humans will try to fulfill many of the four quadrants, instead of just the one that is normal. Some are better at it than others, as it is still, of course instinct for humans to only care about the one. 

You personally have been attempting to be successful in all of them, and for a while thought you were getting close with one black rom relationship, before you realized that it was too much work. It probably didn't help that that person was another human. You would imagine it would be easier with someone who knows what they are doing. As it was, it was just a lot of drama that you really didn't need. 

You have, however, been quite successful in one quadrant. You met your moirail while at an art gallery. You don't particularly enjoy showcasing your art, but you do like comparing it to other people's art, and usually annoying other artist by asking them stupid questions they could never answer. You always go in your troll outfit. 

Said troll outfit consists of gray face paint, of course, dark grey pants, your already sleek dark hair tied in two ponytails resting in front of your ears, and a grey shirt that is all typical of what trolls wear, from what you've observed. Trolls are obligated to wear a symbol that represents their blood caste, and from what you've observed about them, they are one of forty eight symbols for the original constellations that used to exist millennia ago. Your one friend, who is a bit like the resident historien, gave you an incredibly detailed and long explanation about them, then gave you a list of the symbols and what they meant. You were quite happy about that. The symbol you picked for yourself is the symbol for lupus, the wolf, resembling an upside down equilateral triangle with the left hand side protruding upwards a bit. You don't know what blood caste it belongs to, but that never really mattered. 

As you were admiring art at a show one time, you noticed the sound of music from the center of the room. Troll society never was one for music, and it had been ages since humans cared for it either. All prospect of creating beautiful sounds had been forgotten on Gaia. Yet there it was from the centre of the room. There was a female troll playing music on what looked to you to be a silver stick with holes, that she was blowing into the side of. Her fingers kept moving up and down off the stick, as if she couldn't figure out how to get a good grip on it. 

She appeared that she was using the sweet soft melody to help sell some of her paintings that she had displayed. Most of the prospective buyers couldn't figure out what she was doing, including you, to be frank. No one in the room, however, could deny that the music she was creating with the small stick was very beautiful and absolutely amazing. You couldn't figure out how she was creating such complex and sweet sounds with just a piece of old silver with some holes in it.

One of the most interesting parts of this troll girl was that she was wearing the same symbol on her shirt as you were. She had short black hair that curled slightly outwards, and had on jeans along with her dark grey top with a turquoise lupus symbol on it as was previously mentioned. she had colourful paint stains everywhere. 

When she was done her song, you did something you've never done before. you bought one of her paintings. A simple one of nothing in particular, but pretty none the less. When you bought it, you decided to strike up a conversation, asking about her music. You bonded over art, and after finding each other online to chat, you've been good friends, eventually turning into moirails. 

speaking of talking to her, it seems she has been pestering you. You go answer.  
trazomWolfferl [TW] started trolling starkDressed [SD]  
TW: Hello? Heloooooooooooo  
SD: SorrY! I didn't notice you were therE!  
TW: how'd you forgett? We talk everyday around thiss time! You're always very insistent on it if I remember correctlyy.  
SD: I think I was just lost in my memorieS.  
TW: welll we all know we can't trust me to instigate a conversation every time.  
SD: Haha, no, not with your memorY.  
TW: so what'ss the news??  
SD: Well have you heard from UT yeT?  
TW: umm, maybe? I can't rememberr.  
SD: Of course noT!  
SD: Well anyway, you should talk to him about iT.  
SD: The gist of it is, he found an old relic from the walls and stole iT.  
SD: He says it a game or something that we need to plaY.  
SD: It sounds really fuN!!!  
SD: And that it's super important that play, toO!.  
TW: wow geezz! That sounds important then!  
TW: we shouldd listen to him!  
SD: Yeah well it's not like we haven't told you a few times alreadY.  
TW: man I cann be fucking STUPID sometimess!  
SD: Really, it's okay thougH!  
TW: yeahh. Anyways I should go talk to himm.  
[TW] stopped pestering [SD]

Sometimes you'd really wish she would try to focus on more important things instead of screwing around with her weird language you can't figure out. She's always mucking around with it, and you don't understand how it makes sense to her. 

From the sounded from downstairs it looks like your lusus is acting up again. And by that you mean your grandmother is downstairs making a mess. She became quite senile as she got older, and in bouts of confusion she can make a lot of mess and sometimes hurts herself. You have to keep a close eye on her. 

Instead of procrastinating like you would really wish to, you go downstairs right away to help her, because you are worried about her hurting herself or breaking something important, like that one 8000$ vase that's been in the house since forever. 

After that, you will start the game with UT. You will be the client and he will be the server. You aren't quite sure what that means? But you are really exited to be a part of it!, especially with all the issues he's been having lately. You two will be the first to play!

You decide to contact him. Though your other friend seems to know everything about everything including this, UT is kinda like the guy on point. He was, after all, the one to find the game in the first place as an old relic from the walls. His family is quite large and quite puissant, so he lives close to the place they keep special treasures and relics, and he can take them easily. 

starkDressed [SD] started pestering underTitans [UT]  
SD: Is every thing ready to gO?  
UT: more oR [ess. TherE w*re some mish*ps, but it's ok for now.  
UT: *nuw*u, I've got the g*me Readu to go on mu end.  
UT: we shou[d hurru before I get caught.  
SD: YeS! DefinitelY!  
SD: I just promised I'd do something for SP firsT! And I should probably help grannY.  
UT: ok, go do uour thing for the w*ter[ogged too[, but come back soon, ok?  
SD: Of coursE!  
[SD] stopped pestering [UT]

You go downstairs to talk your granny into calming down. When you get down she greets you with  
"It's coming!! A Great War!"  
Like usual. You usually ignore her warnings when she is in one of these moods, but since you heard tell of the game being hidden away like that, you are starting to believe her. Today there is more detail to her warning too. Today she is speaking of a war between humans and trolls, how they were never supposed to be able to get along. The tension is boiling over. 

After meeting some more hostile trolls, and some more judgement all humans, this you really can believe. Tensions between he two races has also been building up quite a bit too. You really don't hope that a war breaks out. 

Anyway, you sit her down and put all sharp objects in the microwave, where you make the door stick and not want to open. You also make it not work, so that she doesn't accidentally turn it on and make it blow up with all the metal that is inside. 

You make your way outside into your lawn ring. It's nine o'clock and today at midnight your favorite constellation, the bitty dipper, is supposed to be directly overhead. It's pretty cold out, and there is a bit of snow, but not much so you can stay outside for a while. There are no clouds. 

You look up expecting to see millions of stars like usual, but you notice some are missing. There are no obstructions that you can see, so it doesn't really make sense for stars to be missing. Among the missing stars are the nine that make up the bitty dipper, and the belt of the hunter. That's probably not good. 

Before you can go inside, you hear a large explosion from just a mile away and the ground shakes around you. 

 

Elelin, be the female troll. 

 

Your name now is Zaiyes Caysok

You are seven sweeps old and you enjoy many different forms of ART. You have created many different instruments, all of which you can play with great ease. You are currently trying to create a language to portray sounds on paper, even though music is rare in your world and you are quite sure that no one will ever see your work. Your blood colour is a cool turquoise and you are quite average in most respects. 

You enjoy art and painting, a hobby that has caused you to be quite MORBID, as most paints are created from the coloured blood of deceased trolls. Your hive is covered in many of your own paintings, along with a lot of crumpled up paper from your attempts at writing your songs down. You have a VERY BAD MEMORY and have a tendency to forget a lot, including past conversations and songs you've wrote. 

You have two weapons in your strife specibus, duel wielded short swords and a staff with a wolf head on the end. You have perfected alternating between the two in fights, which happen rather often between your violent high blooded neighbors. You have many low blooded friends, as you enjoy the company of a CALMER BREED. You do have a tendency to draw trouble to you however, and have caused many fights, resulting in your EXPERTISE in FIGHTING. That could be due to your tendency to get angry very easily, and your temperament can get worse around higher bloods or classes, but you usually switch back to your calmer nature. 

You are in a successful moiralegience with a human. She can be very exitable, but is very good at calming you down when you are having one of your fits. Most of the time though, it seems as though you have to calm her down, when she gets exited about something. 

You have very LONG HORNS that first stick up and out and then go down, straight but slightly angled inwards, which then point upwards again. They go to about your waist. They have a tendency to get in the way, and you have problems bending down or lowering your head, but ultimately they are rather compact for their size,cane you don't usually have any problems walking or going through doorways. 

You have a single psychic ability, according to your wolf lusus, that you have NOT YET AWAKENED. i  
It is quite rare for your blood caste to have psychic abilities, but it's not impossible. You are not very in touch with your emotions, and as consequence you can be rather temperamental, or go through periods of time where you feel no emotion at all. 

Your trolltag is TrazomWolfferl, and you tend to speakk in a very temperamentall manner. 

You've been needing to talk to your friend from the walls. He's the only one you know from the inside of one of the two secluded villages. Well you only talk to him over the internet. You can't remember how he managed to get a computer that could talk to the outside, but you think it had something to do with him stealing it? You really hate your memory sometimes. 

You keep forgetting if you've spoken to him today or not. You've been meaning to, at least, all day. You've been playing with your lusus for a while, and you gave each other some bruises as normal. You'd have liked to keep playing, but you realized it was about the time of day that Elelin would contact you, like everyday. 

It was a bit out of character for her to forget though, you wonder what was happening over there before you spoke? It's probably nothing, probably her dealing with her annoying speaking lusus. You'd take your lusus over hers any day. 

Before you go talk to UT, you want to try to clean up your room first. You have a lot of crumpled up paper on the floor, and instruments littered all over. In the corner of your small respitblock, there is a semi finished instrument that is bigger than you are. It's made out of wood and was hollow inside with 88 strings of varying size connecting to these wooden keys, back and white. Each key and string had a slightly different sound, going from highest to lowest sound. You arranged the keys in a very specific way, and each key was half a note apart. You've been carving it as you go along, so it's been taking longer than you anticipated. It will look amazing once you get it. You still have to connect some of the last keys, finish the top cover and paint most of it black, but you can still play part of it now. 

Admiring it made you want to play it, so once again you get distracted. You haven't perfected how to play it smoothly yet, but you can usually make melodies sound good. You play an angry melody. You like those better, you feel they are more from the heart. You decide that you need to give your new creation a name. You decide to call it a wood key block. At least until you think of a better name. 

As per usual you get caught up in the music and wasted three hours. At least if you keep up that pace you will master he instrument quickly. You need to contact UT before it gets too late. It's already midnight, but you'll both be up for a couple more hours due to the daily hours of Gaia. It's a semi nocturnal lifestyle to integrate the trolls with the humans. 

You go check your computer to find that he has already left you a few messages. 

[UT] started pestering [TW]  
UT: uou were suPposed to t*[k to me tod*y.  
UT: i[[ take It uou forgot? ag*in?  
UT: we[[ *nuwau, I w*s going to expl*in the g*me to uou  
UT: but now there's no tiMe.  
UT: my Sister c*ught me  
UT: *nd of course sHe's gonn* [et them know  
UT: so I'm gonn* h*ve to esCape somehow  
UT: hopefu[[y through the g*me if *t *[[ pOssible  
UT: t*[k to SP, uou h*ve to bRing him into the g*me, uou'll be the l*st in  
UT: I *[readu brought Elelin in.  
UT: I really don't have much time.  
UT: we have to get this rolling  
UT: now. 

ARRRG you don't want to talk to SP right now! He can make you so MAD sometimes! He just goes on and on and on about all his crap that you don't care about. He always has his head in the skies too, it's infuriating!

You rant to yourself for a while until you realize that what UT was saying was a bit disconcerting and you should probably help. You hope he can escape in time. You think about that and immediately forget you feud with SP and contact him right away. 

Apparently he was also trying to contact you, but with less serious news.  
solarPeiades [SP] started pestering trazomWolfferl [TW]  
SP: O the world is said to work in cycles of fifty two O  
SP: O according to certain cultures O  
SP: O the fifty twos have coincided O  
SP: O (that is today) O  
SP: O it can be pretty hard too, O  
SP: O so says the scriptures O  
SP: O according to the culture dead O  
SP: O (a human one, by the way) O  
SP: O here is what the skies would do O  
SP: O they would open wide with rapture O  
SP: O and devour the humans with their dread O  
SP: O at midnight when the mother is absent to say O  
SP: O the sun will not rise O  
SP: O also UT wants to talk to you O  
TW: Will you speakk in English for once! What are you evenn trying to say?  
SP: O I'm quoting from a book O  
TW: you're aaaaallllwaayyys quoting bookss!  
SP: O yes well it's the only education you ever get O  
TW: yes, because since you read you're better than me.  
SP: O well O  
TW: but anyway, what are you trying to say? Also, UT wanted you to explain things with the game.  
SP: O oh ok yeah O  
SP: O so basically, the world will end when the mother isn't in the sky where it should be and the sun won't rise the next morning after that O  
SP: O the mother being a star cluster. Every fifty two years at midnight, it is perfectly straight up in the sky. As high as it can be O  
SP: O so when one year, it is not there for some reason, O  
SP: O it means the world is going to end and there will be no more sun for the earth O  
SP: O the problem is, it's almost midnight, and the stars are no where to be found O  
SP: O they just disappeared out of the sky O  
TW: so what does that meann?  
SP: Ocwe have until dawn to get out of here O  
SP: O or else we're dead O  
TW: how the hell are we supposed to do that?  
SP: O through the game O That's what it's for O  
TW: andd you figured this out in five minutes.  
SP: Ono, the signs have been in the sky for a while O  
SP: O we went backwards a zodiac,O  
SP: O there are bright stars missing, O  
SP: O and there have been more and more earthquakes O  
SP: O im about to bring him into the game, and when I do,ill need you to connect to me as my server player O  
SP: O so get the download ready O  
TW: waitt, didn't Eli say that that's the one where you get to messs with the other person's home? I have powerr over you?  
TW: I like this partt of the game.  
SP: O yes, unfortunately, and she will be your server player to complete the chain O  
SP: O I'll chat you when I'm ready, it won't be too long. I hope he's alright... O  
[SP] stopped pestering [TW]  
You are a but worried about him too, now that you are thinking about him again. 

The ground shakes, and you only now notice that it has been doing soon and off for nearly the entire time you were spaced out. Only now do you look out your window. You live in a suburb around an integrated city, but your neighborhood is mainly trollian. So it's not a usual or welcome sight to see a mob of humans with torches and guns heading towards your area. 

You should probably get the game ready. 

Zaiyes, be the boy from the walls. 

You are now the boy from the walls. 

Your name is Parida Jeagar

You are seven sweeps old and live in a HUMAN ONLY community surrounded by WALLS. It is a very enclosed CULT who's beliefs you don't share. You think that you quite like the trolls and that they are PEOPLE just like the humans. 

You are the only son of the king of the walls. You have six older SISTERS who will inherit the role of father. Your oldest sister is very strict with the rules of the walls, and hangs out with the militia a lot. After that, your sisters get progressively less strict, up to the youngest who is very apathetic, and you, who is soundly against their rules and beliefs. 

Because you are 'royal', you have more or less easy access to the ROYAL SAFE, which contains items of VALUE or that are considered DANGEROUS. As such, you have perfected the art of stealing things so you could see what what inside. 

If you ever get caught, by your sisters or otherwise, you will be killed, probably. As the youngest no one really cares about you, and you will probably just get married off to some rich lady or lord. Basically, you are expendable. 

You are almost perpetually NERVOUS because of it and have made friends only through the laptop with outside connections. You can't get yourself to trust anybody, and most if the time that's probably with good cause. 

There is nearly always internal strife, and lately you have noticed that your oldest sisters are more detached lately and you think they are PLOTTING. 

Your pesterchum is underTitans and you tend to spe*k in *n obvious manner, but *re sti[[ pl*ufu[[ with online friends. 

As previously mentioned, you have a knack for stealing from the royal vault. It should be mentioned that the royal vault is more of a cave, with items of slightly lesser value closer to the entrance, with more chasms and caves farther in with more important items in there. There are guards riddled about, but no one minds you going in, as long as you don't take anything out. At least until further in, where you aren't allowed. 

Since you were a kid, you always pretended you were playing games with the guards, and you explained this to them, the games always involving hiding from them and being sneaky. As a kid, they probably were just games, but have since evolved into a way for you to practice sneaking past the guards farther in, and an excuse for being somewhere in the cave without the notice of guards if you are ever caught. 

You have also practiced fighting with the guards, as the only place to train for anything in your position. You are not far enough amount the ranks to get special military or martial training, and even if you did, you would probably not like it very much. You and the guards are on very good terms. Or at least as good of terms as you can be with anyone. 

Your strife speciby is a sword. You used to practice all the time with the guards, often borrowing one of theirs, until in an act of generosity, your sister let you pick something from the vault. That was nice, because unlike your other treasures, you would be able to flaunt it rather than hide it. You chose a quaint sword similar to the guards', that had a rustic feel, but a beautifully carved hilt and a sharp blade. 

You have recently upgraded to the point where you can sneak in and out of the farthest caves without being seen or heard. The first thing you took was a laptop from a pile. Laptops themselves aren't rare, but laptops that can communicate or even connect with the outside world, are unheard of in the walls. You stole one of these, and have been using it ever since, keeping it carefully hidden. 

Just a couple of days ago, you made you way into the furthest cavern. You had to marvel at the sight of two disk slips with DVDs in them. The packages each had an insignia on it, one was a Spirograph, one was a house. They both had faded red writing you couldn't read. They were computer programs. At the time, you didn't know that, but you did take them so you could look them up. You weren't quite sure at the time why this was the wall's closest treasure. 

Online, you found two helpful walkthroughs, both were a bit wordy, but explained everything. It explained the end of the world, something you knew was coming anyway from your friend, as well as the protocol for setting everything up and saving your friends. 

You had planned to look it up and then just download it on your computer for later and put the disks themselves back, but your second oldest sister found out that it was missing and called for the royal militia to find out who stole it. You are now at risk of being found out, and have been since preparing in secret for an escape. In hindsight, you wonder what she was doing in that chamber anyway, but it's no matter now. Your littlest sister has already known about your laptop, and though she didn't care enough to tell anyone, she won't care enough to keep it a secret either.

You had already explained what the game does, in as little detail as possible, to probably the two worst people to explain anything to. You hadn't meant for it to work out that way, those two were the only ones available to talk to at the time. The one, of course, forgot everything the minute she logged off, and the other just made your life harder during the explanation. He didn't understand that you were trying to be cryptic. You were worried that they would be the only ones that would be playing, but they brought Elelin in too. You kinda hoped they would. 

Now you are getting ready to play with her. This was the plan, and you can't change that without alerting her. It is useless to alarm her, but you do decide to warn Zayies, since she won't be at her computer, and it would be nice to explain why you're speeding everything up. Though you did lie to her and said that'd you already brought Elelin in, because you know that she will freak of she thinks Elelin is in danger at all; also it'll probably get her moving faster. As long as you get in, the rest probably doesn't have to be so rushed, but it would be a good idea to get it all rolling around the same time, just in case. 

Suddenly, Elelin contacts you. You answer. 

starkDressed [SD] started pestering underTitans [UT]  
SD: Is everything ready to gO?  
...  
We have already seen this conversation.  
You tried to do your best at making her hurry, while not alarming her. Now you have to talk to SP. 

underTitans [UT] started pestering [SP]  
UT: We need to go.  
UT: I'm sorry, we have to speed everything up, I'm going to get caught.  
UT: This is probably my last chance.  
UT: can you bring me into the game soon?  
SP: O my, you're using your serious typing, you're not joking O  
SP: O I just got Elelin to do me a favour, once she gets back to me I'll be ready O  
UT: yeah ok, but please hurry after.  
UT: wait why Elelin?  
SP: O you and Zayies wouldn't have done it O  
UT: yeah that's true. I probably wouldn't have helped with uour stupid st*r se*rch  
SP: O no, you wouldn't. But it's not stupid, what I'm doing O  
SP: O it's great that you're calming down though asshat O  
SP: O she's getting back to me now, so you are going to have to get her in first O

You know he's right. You log off before he can bother you more. You have an interesting relationship with the guy to say the least. You are both interested in what the other has to say, even if you find he can ramble on way too long; but you seem to be very interested in making each other's lives as difficult as possible. 

Sure enough, Elelin messages you back. 

[SD] continued pestering [UT]  
SD: I'm done, sorry for the waiT!  
UT: it's ok, as long as we st*rt now  
SD: Yeah that's finE!  
UT: ok, just install the client disk  
SD: Are you ok over therE? Your quirk is gonE?  
UT: um, no, I'm fine over here  
SD: OK! But um, be carefu[ outside, there might be, uh, stray meteorS  
UT: ...  
UT: gre*t. 

You start to install- the program starts to download as one of the more dangerous sisters bursts into your room. You flail around nervously, making to hide the laptop, but you know it's no use, and you probably wouldn't have seemed as suspicious if you hadn't done that. Her eyes widen and she starts to run outside. You have no other choice but to go after her. You tackle her to the floor, accidentally knocking her out, though that was probably for the best. You drag her into your room and lock yourself in the closet to finish what you have to do. 

You are suddenly the last character we have yet to meet. 

Your name is Nikkas Danrue

You are seven sweeps old and enjoy old HISTORY. Your focus is on the history of GAIA and old human cultures, due to the ever dwindling amount of information on the origins of the trolls, but it is of no matter to you; there is enough to learn. You are a bit distraught that you have even less chance of finding your ANCESTORS than most trolls would have before, though you do not have enough information to make that comparison, and are just sad you can't meet your ancestors. 

You can be a bit of a KNOW IT ALL on the subject of practically everything, and like to flaunt your knowledge to your friends that you made over the internet through INEXPLICABLE prowess. You have a tendency to RANT about that which you know a good deal about, and can scare people off sometimes. Your longest running friend, though not your first, became your friend due to his weariness and inexperience on chat sites, and probably didn't realize that there were better options out there. 

He is still your friend now, and you seem to have a bit of a LOVE HATE friendship with him, one that you want to bring over fully into the BLACK quadrant if possible, but probably won't be able to due to the fact that he is a HUMAN. You are, of course, a troll, with a PURPLE blood colour. 

You are partially a SEA DWELLER, and by partially, you mean that you are a water based troll, but your lack any GILLS that would have otherwise made that obvious. You feel you should revise that statement, you have gills, just not working ones. You have instead, a VERY GOOD LUNG SPAN with which you can hold your breath underwater for hours at a time, much like a DOLPHIN. A DOLPHIN is of course, your lusus. 

You live mostly underwater under an OUTCROP OF ROCK that blocks out the sky. You can swim away to see it if you want, but it can be a dangerous and long trip, and you don't want to make the trip just to see the sun or stars very often. Due to this you see very little of the SKY and hence miss out on many of the wonders that pique your interest that still exist today. 

Your trolltag is solarPleiades and you O tend to speak in a very matter of fact manner O

Your aforementioned friend has told you about this game he found, with as little detail as possible of course. He still told you more than he told Zayies, probably in the hopes that you could re explain it to her when she forgets. You were also going to explain things to your fourth group member, Elelin, but you were told not to by someone else. 

One of the things you enjoy doing with your vast knowledge on all things is analyzing the troll's symbols. Forty eight signs based off of old human constellations, by amazing coincidence. 

You have learned that signs do not always equal ancestral relation to others. You have also learned however that trolls with similar signs are drawn to each other. Trolls with aquatic signs aren't always sea based trolls, and vise versa, but trolls with, for example the signs Corona Borealis and Corona Australis will usually find each other. 

Your sign, Orion the hunter, has already found the signs lupus the wolf, the Pleiades, the seven sisters, and you are pretty sure Lepus, the rabbit. Similar signs are not always friends, but the ones in your area that you've met so far are. You should also point out that there are more reasons for the choice of signs that blood caste, and that is why you know what your humans' signs are. At least you think. Some are easier to guess than others. 

You should also point out that the Pleiades aren't actually an official sign, but this friend is a human and you think it would fit. With humans really, all bets are off. 

When you're not learning things that everyone else thinks is useless knowledge, you spend your time fishing. It usually takes a while, because you often have to fight other animals and sea dwellers for the food. Your strife specibus is a crossbow. You can use it to fish with a string attached to the arrows, and you have specially designed it so it can double as a two ended sword. You don't have to use that that often though, due to the usual long range of the weapon. 

You read once that there was old myths about certain stars clusters and their position in the sky. That every 52 years, this cluster would reach its equinox. When you found out that that was going to be this year, you were at first very exited. Then you found a lesser myth about how if the Pleiades were to not show one year, the world was coming to an end and the sun would not rise in the morning. 

You've been ranting about this to your friends since you found out about this, and have concluded that since there are inexplicably less and less stars in the sky, these stars would also be blocked out and the world would end. And after learning about the game, you became certain that this would happen and that is why. The world was going to end. 

You still asked Elelin to watch them for you just in case. At around nine at night, an hour or two after the sun set, she messages you with the news that they were indeed not in the sky. That's when you got a time stamp. You had about nine hours before the world ended. You also learned that your friend was in dire need of your help into the game. so you obliged. You highly doubt that these two events have anything in common. 

You messages your friend telling him that you were ready to start when he was. You take one more quick check of your hive for anything that you might have left outside. Anything of real importance is in your room, where your computer is, just in case. 

Your hive is above ground, on a sandy beach like area with access to the water and rocky cliff like edifices surrounding it. Around the top of the biggest cliff face there is a very large jut of rock that hangs over your entire hive.  
Your hive itself is on the beach, but with a dock portion with no floor for access to the water straight from your hive. You have a couple of areas in the underwater potion of your hive build with cages for certain wildlife and other that you want to keep caged up, either for food for later, or for safety, like your lusus. These cages don't have roofs or floors, using the open air in your hive and the sea floor. The cage for your lusus is quite roomy, and you open it up to other smaller cages with fish inside when your lusus needs to eat.  
The hive is two floors tall, but very big. On the bottom floor with the water and caged areas is the kitchen. Not much really is there, but it is light and airy with many island, creating almost a maze effect. It is one of your favourite rooms. Your room is on the top floor, and is quite big. It is where you spend most of your time, along with your computer.  
Since you don't get any natural light, you have many different means of illuminating your hive. One of which is glow plankton in the water, and glow worms elsewhere on the first floor. Though that sounds like the artificial light would be disconcerting, it is really quite beautiful and brighter than it seems. You also keep many fireflies down there. On the first floor where it is dry it is mostly just torches and electric light  
You have never had any problems with intruders, because even though there is no system that would keep anyone out, like a lock, or a door, it's a very secluded place no one has ever found. Traps are set up for any sea creatures that come near it as well. Other than you and your lusus, no one has ever been in your hive before. 

You search your house for anything that is missing. It sounds like a rather redundant excersise, and it probably is, but you check just in case. The cages are all locked, except for the one. It's the one that s always open, with the biggest area. It's basically never closed, but you figure that you probably should in case anything goes wrong when you teleport to the medium. Parida said that the game will teleport you and your immediate surroundings, but you don't know what that means so you want to lock up in case it gets left behind. 

You notice a couple of closed cupboards that weren't closed before, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. So you head upstairs, take a deep breath and sit at your computer, ready. You sit there for about half a second before you hear a loud noise from outside. You look out your window on the water side, and see bubbles and an orange light from right above one of the places you know to be one of your neighbor's house a few miles out. Not a good sign. 

 

Chapter 2

You are now Elelin. 

You went outside to look at the stars. You noticed them start to disappear before your very eyes, and then you hear an explosion close to where you were. It had given you quite a start. After very brief investigation, you found the answer to both of your questions. One: what the explosion was; and two: why the stars were disappearing on a cloudless night. 

The answer to the second one was that it was smoke and ash filling the sky; and the reason for that and the answer to the first question is that there had been quite a few meteors that kicked up quite a bit of dust in this dryer area where you live. 

The meteors have been far enough off that you didn't feel or hear anything before just now. You are now, of course, quite alarmed, and think that this is probably no time to be worrying about games, and rather a better time to take your granny and run. You aren't sure where or how, but getting out is a big priority. 

You told Nikkas that you would talk to him after you went outside, so you decide to go do that now.  
starkDressed [SD] started pestering solarPleiades [SP]  
SD: Yeah ok, the bitty dipper isn't therE  
SP: O well that's not good O  
SP: O that's not good at all O  
SD: Um, yeah, I guess noT?  
SD: There are meteors outside my house right noW. What am I supposed to do about thaT? I'm kinda scared, there's no time to be playing games like thiS!  
SP: O I know you're scared O  
SP: O but listen O  
SP: O you HAVE TO PLAY THAT GAME O  
SP: O it'll help you O  
SP: O the game... brings you to another dimension for a while O  
SP: O and you need to help UT O  
SP: ...  
SD: Help hiM?  
SD: What does he need help witH?  
SP: O shit I wasn't supposed to say anything O  
SP: O don't worry, it's nothing, we just have to hurry O  
SP: O everything will be ok, if you play the game now O  
SD: OK. If you're surE.  
SP: O yes good O Talk to UT O  
[SP] stopped being pestered by [SD]

You agree. It doesn't really help you much, and the part about Parida being in trouble is a bit disconcerting. So you talk to him. 

starkDressed [SD] continued pestering underTitans [UT]  
SD: I'm done, sorry for the waiT!  
UT: it's ok, as long as we st*rt now  
SD: Yeah that's finE!  
UT: ok, just install the client disk  
SD: Are you ok over therE? Your quirk is gonE?  
UT: um, no, I'm fine over here  
SD: OK! But um, be careful outside, there might be, uh, stray meteorS  
UT: ...  
UT: gre*t. 

SD: Im not too sure about thiS. There are meteors getting closer and closer to my housE. SP said it would be ok, but will iT?  
UT: ues, it wil[. Don't worry.  
UT: let's start.  
UT: load the c[ient disc. I'l[ load the server. Let's start!

You download the program that's been sitting on you computer for a couple of days. You watch the Spirograph on your computer spin and change shape as the program loads. Parida is meanwhile doing the same thing. It finishes loading. 

You are now in the game. 

Parida immediately starts unloading the three items into your house. Since there is not a single room where it'll all fit, he puts all three items on the same floor for you. He takes your bed and unceremoniously tosses it out the window. 

None of this going on is a surprise to you, because that was ONE of the things that you were told. There was really not much you do know about this, but you know what you have to do, especially after reading many of the walkthroughs. Some were hard to read win the horrible quality, but all in all it was pretty useful. You wanted to make sure you were 100% prepared for all that was to come. You are, of course, not; but it was worth a try. 

After sending your bed flying and probably scaring the neighbors, he set up the alchemiter in your room. The cruxtruder is set up in your granny's room, and the totem lathe is in your hallway. Your granny's bed is also out the window. Now your first priority is to open your cruxtruder and see how much time you have to complete your tasks. 

You go into your granny's room to open it. You try the obvious option of spinning the wheel shaped handle, but the lid just jolts and doesn't go anywhere. You take the microwave you had glitches up earlier and place it on top of the lid, plug it in and turn it on. Being as you didn't take the metal out from before, it starts to spark. You run over to the totem lathe in the meantime to put your pre punched card in the slot where it will need to go when you get the totem. 

The microwave explodes. You go back in to check on it. It did manage to pop the lid off. You can now turn the wheel to get deep purple Uncarved totems.You take the one that first comes out of the cruxtruder. The side of the cruxtruder has a timer that reads 21:42 and began counting down when you opened the lid. That's... not bad you guess. You do know what you're doing after all. You're probably going to have twenty minutes of idle time. The kernelsprite floats idly beside the cruxtruder. For now. 

You take the totem and bring it into the hall. You put it in the totem lathe and turn it on. Nothing happens. The pre punched card is no longer in the slot where it should be. You go see if you can ask Parida if he knows where it went. 

UT: sorry, I have to go now. You seem to have the parts you need me for done fine  
UT: I should be back soon, but you're on your own for a while. Sorry

Now you have to figure out what happened to the card. It was probably your granny who took it, to be honest. The problem with that is she has a LOT of hiding places, and will NOT be easy to convince to let you have the card back. There will be a fight when you catch her. Twenty minutes. 

You hope Parida is doing something important. It's not the best time for him to disappear. Time to find granny. 

Your house used to belong to a troll, a creative troll, and it has many nooks and crannies and hidey holes. It's not big, but there are many hidden rooms, storage nooks, and interesting staircases in strange places. It's a very nice home, and you really like it. When granny gets into a mood however, it's less amazing. 

You start on the floor you're on. She's not in either of the hidden rooms in your room, none of the three of your granny's room, and not in the one in the ceiling in the hallway. She wasn't in the slave's staircase in the wall. That's one of your favourite's. She was however, in the Laundry chute. Well okay, that wasn't so hard. It's been seven minutes though. 

Now you have to... Get her out of the laundry chute. That's the hard part. You lock the entrance from this floor, and go down to the next floor. You know from experience that she can climb up and escape that way easily. You are now on the second and middle floor. Instead of locking this one too, you decide to take a different approach. You climb into the chute and hang from your fingers for a second on the inside. Then you let go. 

The inside of the chute is predictably dark. You land on top of granny, and end up in an awkward wrestle with her. She tries to escape through the slide at the edge, but you grab her leg at the last second. She wriggles out and drags you out with her. You are now half on half out of the laundry chute with your legs still inside. She is also still on the floor right outside the exit. Keeping a tight grip on her leg, you climb out until you are right beside her and wrestle-grab the prepunched card from her hands. Luckily she hadn't done anything with it, and it didn't get ripped or anything in the struggle. You would have been in trouble if it had been. 

You now have five minutes to get back upstairs and alchemise your item. You run up the three flights of stairs and the kernel floats up to greet you. It floats by your shoulder as you stuff the card into its spot on the totem lathe and turn it on. It carves the totem, really intriguing design. You rush it to the alchemiter and spend another minute trying to figure out how it works. Once you figure it out, it alchemises your item. It is a giant pill. One of those capsules that dissipate in water. 

Your bedroom door, which was cracked open, suddenly slams wide open to reveal your granny. She has a potted plant in her hand. She launches it at your head. You duck. It heads straight for the deep purple kernel over you shoulder. It stays in place and accepts the plant. Your sprite is now a completely useless household item that can't communicate with you whatsoever. 

You check the timer. It now reads thirty seconds. You run back to your room. You have to figure out what it is you have to do with your item to send you to the medium. Just as you get close to the alchemiter with the pill still resting on the top, you trip over your granny who decided to just lay right in the middle of your room. You fall into the alchemiter, flailing your hands trying to get a grip on something. In your fall you manage to knock the item off of the device and send it to the floor, breaking it in half. Little balls from inside scatter all over the place. 

The little balls keep pouring out from the pill, covering your floor. It covers your granny, it covers your shoes. It covers your bed and dresser. It climbs the walls without ever filling the room. Little purple balls then cover you, leaving that as he last thing you see, and distant rumbling from above the last thing you hear, before you enter the medium and fall asleep. 

 

 

You are now Parida. 

 

You are the server player to Elelin. She finally got back to you and you ca start playing the game. She had some second guesses based on the imposing doom of the meteors being rather close to her place, but you still managed to convince her to play. 

You set up as her server, and unload all of the gear that she will need. The controls are difficult and you are a bit stressed, but it is rather straightforward. You do, after all, know exactly what you need to do. You then tell her that you have to leave her alone for these crucial moments. You really would rather not, but you yourself are afraid, and time is of the essence. 

You also feel sort of bad for not telling Elelin anything important about the doom factor of the game, or what is the problem on your side that you have to deal with. But you figure leaving her in the dark about it is probably the best. There is still no need to worry her you think. 

Now you have to worry about yourself. You don't hear anything from outside your door, so you think you're good. You are currently in the farthest point from the door that your room allows. Your room is shaped a bit like a 'b', with the stem on the opposite side of the door. It's a very inconvenient space, but really so is most of your room. It's small, but still bigger than you need for your bed and dresser, the only furniture. You've hidden in the stem many times. You are there now, sitting with your back against the wall. 

You message Nikkas. 

underTitans [UT] started pestering solarPleiades [SP]  
UT: ok Elelin is in, my turn  
SP: O alright O I'll download the program O

You download the client program. You immediately calm down. At first nothing happens, but then Nikkas messages you again. 

SP: O I can see your entire house from here O  
UT: ueah, we knew th*t though  
SP: O the point is, I can warn you when people are coming O  
UT: th*t's great.  
SP: O for gods sake, I'm trying to say I'm going to help you in this O  
UT: oh. We[[ in that case, th*nks.  
SP: O I've also blocked off some walls O The only people who CAN get to you are unfortunately your sisters O It was the best I could do O  
UT: uou're being suRprising[y helpfu[.  
SP: O well it's not like the other times O This is serious O  
SP: O I'm setting up what you need in your room, it'll be a bit tight, sorry O I'll probably expand the room a bit too, don't be alarmed O  
SP: O don't forget to prototype your kernel O  
UT: ueah, ok. tH*nks. 

He then sets up the totem lathe right in front of your door, the alchemiter right in front of the stem that you're in now, and the cruxtruder right beside the totem lathe. The alchemiter is blocking off the stem, but you can still climb over it fine. You understand that Nikkas put it there, and the totem lathe in front of the door in order to hopefully prevent anyone from getting close to you. You've never seen him so helpful before, but he did have a point that this was different. 

There is nothing in your room that you can use to open the cruxtruder, now that you've found out that it will not be easy to open. Nikkas takes your bed and drops it on top of the cruxtruder. Everything jumps and makes a loud noise. The lid opens to reveal a light blue kernel and a light blue totem. The timer reads 15:07. 

You take the totem, and the prepunched card from the alchemiter, and bring them over to the totem lathe. You carve the totem with ease, and bring it over to the alchemiter. You alchemise your item. It is a ring. At first you thought it didn't work, because it was rather small, but you did notice it after a bit. You pick it up and pocket it. You won't need it right away. 

You still have over ten minutes. You check on your messages. Nothing. 

UT: *m i sti[[ ok?  
SP: O yeah, you're good O  
SP: O they've found your 'handy work' O  
SP: O nice job with the girl O  
SP: O but haven't gotten through the door O  
SP: O they're going to get through eventually O  
UT: ok, I w*s going to *[chemise something. Find something to prototype with.  
SP: O alright I'll deploy the other device then O  
UT: th*nks

He deploys the last thing you need to alchemise anything. You get a new totem and try to decide what to make. You don't really have that much in your room. You take your laptop and put in in a card from your extendable bag sylladex. You have a lot of cards in that bag, where you keep all your treasures. You can afford to have a lot, but it is hard to find anything in it. You have nothing in there right now you're willing to have out in front for anyone to see. You know you're being paranoid at this point, but you've always had to be guarded, and a habit won't break easily. You pick up the card, after some searching, and you turn it over for the code. You punch an empty card that you found after some more searching. 

You've been quite wary of the door, listening for sounds that would warn you of their entrance. You didn't hear when they were trying the door, or pushing on it, but you've been listening intently now that they've been banging on it. They're probably trying to break it down. The totem lathe is heavy enough to keep them out, but it only goes up to your chest, so if they attack the door higher up, they'd probably be able to break the door and get in that way. 

You finally decide to punch your hood onto another card. It's a robe for formal wear, but it has a good feature, and you are quite fond of it. It's white with golden trim, and is the nicest thing you own, due to the fact that you wear it for public appearances. 

You && your computer with your hood and carve a totem out of it. You were not a fan of getting that close to the door, but all the noise does is make your sisters think that you were just upgrading your security. You alchemise the Hoodtop! A formal robe with all the amenities of a computer! If you put the hood up, you can converse with friends in a hands free way! That'll be really convenient for when your friends need to warn you about anything. 

You then || the hoodtop with the capcha of an Uncarved totem. You make the Character Colour Hoodtop! You now have the exact same thing but in the colour light blue. You don your hoodtop. You test the messaging system. 

UT: this is *ctu*[[y * re*[[y cool fe*ture!  
SP: O that is pretty cool, I'll have to try it out. O  
SP: O your sisters figured out they have to break your door. They'll be in soon O  
SP: O this is why I'm glad my species doesn't have family. O  
SP: O they gang up on you. O  
SP: O you're always talking about how you have to deal with them all the time O  
SP: O and you only mildly like the one. O  
SP: O she's not helping try to get in at all by the way O  
SP: O she's tending to your other sister who I presume you knocked out? O  
SP: O good on you O  
SP: O so really there's only four actually trying to get to you O  
SP: O but they are pissed as hell. O  
SP: O they weren't fans of your discretion methods O  
SP: O your methods being to knock out the first person who came close to your room. O  
SP: O and you here mentioning that they'd be mad at you for stealing, too O  
SP: O that's also out of the bag now O  
SP: O they blame you for everything O  
SP: O and are definitely going to kill you. O  
SP: O human families are weird O  
SP: O even trolls wouldn't kill people they're supposed to love O  
SP: O well I guess that's not true. O  
SP: O and I guess there was no love or kinship in your family either. O  
SP: O oh look they're actually aiming for the weaker points of the door now. O  
SP: O they're gonna get in soon. O  
SP: O just so you know. O

You take it back. Being able to hear every message that gets sent to you is not easy or convenient in anyway. Mostly just annoying. But now you're worried again. You don't really know what's going to happen once you're in the medium. And you only just now remembered that you still have to prototype your sprite. 

You don't really have anything that you'd like to bring back to life, and you know that whatever you prototype it has to be something that appears like it would be able to talk. Perhaps throwing your computer in would be acceptable, but then you'd be throwing away your copy of the game. 

You can't finish your thought before you hear two loud noises in quick succession. The first was Nikkas warning you of your sisters succeeding at breaking down the door. The second was your sisters succeeding at breaking down the door. 

The door was in pieces around the top, and split perfectly horizontally down the middle. The totem lathe topples over and the top part breaks. It's completely unusable now, and your sisters can climb over everything easily. You were already in the stem by the alchemiter, and the noise makes you jump back. You skulk back to the wall, never taking your eyes off of the intruders. You take out your sword in preparation. 

All you can think is that this really shouldn't be a problem. 

"What the hell is all of this?" Your middle sister Arista asked. She of course, knows nothing. She's just mad about your other sister Atinna. And the theft. Aquata is the one who knows the most, being the eldest and most trusted, and she is steaming. 

"You. You. Do you have any idea what that DOES?!?" She screams. Everyone else is feeding off her energy, which is where the killing intent is coming from. You put on a brave face, keep your chin up and hold your sword out in front of you. You check the time on the cruxtruder. You can just barely see it from where you are. It reads thirty seconds. You think that this is probably the best time to put on the ring. 

You do. It fits onto your index finger perfectly. Twenty seconds. It's about now you remember that you have nothing prototyped. In that sense though, you're actually quite lucky, because Aquata realizes this too. Your kernel is flashing brightly right next to your shoulder. 

"Aw hell" she says. She switches priorities. Everyone else keeps you cornered, but she takes your hoodtop from the top of the alchemiter and and throws it at you. Well she throws it at the kernel to prototype it. Your sprite is now a light blue robe with all the capabilities of a computer. It looks basically identical to the one you're wearing. 

Two seconds left. That seems a bit fast for you, but it doesn't matter anymore. You close your eyes tight and hope. You can see a flash of light through your eyelids. You are in the medium. Your sisters are gone. Well the four that were trying to kill you are. The other two are outside your door still. Atinna is still unconscious, and Ariel, the youngest is still tending to her. They won't be an issue. 

You slump back against the wall in relief. You don't know what happened to them, but you are momentarily unconcerned. You sit. It's the first time in a while that you were able to just take a moment. You've been perpetually scared for as long as you can remember. But you can't relax yet. You still have to deal with people who are after you. That and now the dangerous aspects of the game. 

You play with the golden ring on your finger. You can just tell that's going to be a nervous tick.  
Ariel looks over at you. "Oh hey. You're awake, where did you you get that nice ring? It suits you."

 

 

You are now Errand Runner. 

 

 

You do many tasks for the white queen. Anything from getting her water to going through with hits. Lately prospit has been on edge. It's about one of prospit's heroes, the one who has been awake most of her life. You usually watch over the two heroes. When she's awake, she is usually delirious, and never seems to remember anything. Lately she's been predicting prospit's downfall. Predictions of doom for the golden planet. 

This was concerning to you, so you spoke to the white queen about it. She understood quite well. You gave you a slight nod, and then a new task. You were to take her ring to the hero of space. She explained that his powers would allow him to bring it with him when he woke up. So now you have to get into the tall tower to give him the ring. 

All goes well. You put the ring of four orbs on his finger. Not long after, he wakes up, breathing heavily. He looks at you once and says "thanks. I'll take it from here." before disappearing, ring and all. 

 

Years into the future, but not many, an Errant Runaway finds a large obtrusive building, the shape of a ring. Seeking shelter from the harsh desert, he goes in the entrance on the side. It is a small protrusion on the side. After the push a button, you spin around the ring. But to him it just looks like the wall is moving. It then opens up to reveal a bigger room. Inside, you see a big screen, divided up into four separate monitors. Lit brightly up on the screen to the top left is a young boy nervously sleeping by a wall. It all seems rather familiar to you, but you don't remember how. 

Right now, you just want to find someone to follow. You don't know what you're doing, and are really quite lonely. You miss having a purpose. You wonder what you used to be. 

 

You are now Nikkas. 

 

You've been helping Parida get into the game. You've really had nothing better to do except struggle to get Zayies help you enter. That and check out the various noises coming from downstairs. You think it's just your lusus. You fed it, but other than that you couldn't really figure out what was wrong. Probably the cage door being closed. 

You've tried to be as helpful as possible to Parida, even doing things he didn't think of. You think he's probably had to deal with enough. It's also possible you have other motives that you yourself don't quite understand. You've been talking to him for nearly the entire fifteen minutes since he started the game with him. 

And you've been trying to talk to Zayies, as previously mentioned. She's being a bit obtuse, and is upset for some reason. 

solarPleiades [SP] started pestering trazomWolfferl [TW]  
SP: O are you by any chance actually willing to set up with me right now?O  
TW: sett up what?  
SP: O the game? O Or have you forgotten O  
TW: Are you SERIOUSLY going to questionn my credibility?!  
TW: You TOLD ME that our LIVES dependedd on it!  
TW: I'm nott fucking STUPID  
TW: I understandd how this SHIT WORKS you asshole!  
SP: O woah calm down. O  
SP: O what the hell has you so worked up? O  
TW: Elelin's not talkingg to me.  
SP: O are you sure that's the problem? O  
TW: no, I'm upsett for a different reason. Please, enlightenn me on whatever in my life could be getting me so down.  
SP: O that's not what I meant for jegus sake O  
TW: uh huhh.  
SP: O Elelin's busy O She's in the game right now, she probably has bigger things to deal with O  
TW: so she's too busyy for me. Besidess! I'm worriedd about her! I need to make sure she's okayy!  
SP: O I'm sure she's fine! O Ask Parida about her in a few minutes! O I'm sure he'll know O He is her server player O  
TW: oh, is he too busyy too?  
SP: O yes, with much bigger problems than yours O  
TW: oh. That's right. He's always so calm about it, I always forget he's actually in trouble.  
TW: he never told me any details, what's going on?  
SP: O basically everyone he knows is exacerbated with him and he's assaying to abscond from imminent cessation O  
TW: yeah I shouldd have known better than to think you would be helpful.  
SP: aw are my words too big for you?  
SP: maybe I should stick to small words that you'd understand better.  
SP: oops I mean that you would figure out easier.  
TW: screww you  
SP: just talk to him. He's almost done. He'll entertain you soon enough. 

That was about five minutes ago. You know you probably went a bit too far, especially since you are kind of asking her a favour, but you're hoping Parida will have helped. Right after entering the medium he fell asleep. Not really the best move, but you had his back. You picked up his sword and started waving it around with the mouse, making it look like it was floating. The one that seemed to be in charge, the one that prototyped his kernel, then gave some orders to the others and they turned to leave. Leaving him alone is always allowed, so you take back some of the walls you made in his hive to keep intruders out. 

That won't be a problem anymore. Only three parts of his hive were taken with him to the medium. His room and the hallway outside his room, with his sisters in it, the vault, which was directly below his bedroom, and a tank, belonging to the leader sibling. Interestingly enough, due to the vault's thin multi-level make up, it ends up creating a tower. A tower with a tank at the base. 

The point was, since you spoke to Zayies, he has woken up. You can no longer tell what or who he's talking to at any time, due to his new hands free computing device. Also, he could be talking to the people around him, or his new sprite. You hope she got to talk to him. It would make everything simpler. 

SP: O so did you get a hold of him? O  
TW: yeah, he says it's all fine, and encouraged me to connectt with you.  
TW: he did remind me thatt I had control over your surroundings.  
SP: O yeah, but do remember that there is a limit O  
TW: yeah yeahh, let's connect. 

You suppose it's probably time to download the game. You press the download button and watch the green Spirograph spin, waiting. 

You are now in the game. 

Now you're worried. Not for any big reason, just because you just managed to piss off the person that has full control over your surroundings. 

Sure enough that's first thing she does. First She opens all doors, cupboards and cages. There goes your food. Then she wastes a bunch of grist expanding your hive the exact opposite way you're going to need later. Then she wastes some time painting your hive. 

SP: ok, so I know that you're getting your revenge and all, but could you maybe deploy the devices I need?  
TW: oh. Rightt.  
SP: the alchemiter, the cruxtruder, the totem lathe, and the prepunched card.  
TW: whateverr. :)

Yeah that's probably not good. At the very least, you are quite sure that she won't do anything that will actually harm you in any way. Mostly, she'll just try to make your life as hard as she can. That she does. 

You go into each room as she deploys the alchemiter in your room, the totem lathe on the exact opposite side of your hive on the same floor, the pre punched card in the toilet, and the cruxtruder directly in front of you in the kitchen when you decide to give up and close more cupboards. Basically everything is blocking passageways. 

Just as you were getting ready to crawl over the kitchen island, she actually picks it up. She lifts the entire island over your head and aims directly over the cruxtruder. Yeah, it's about time you get out of there. You sprint to the other side of the room, closer to the cages. You didn't have time to turn around before you hear the sound of the island breaking the cruxtruder open, startling you into the water face first. 

You just. You sit there in the water for a bit. You can practically hear Zayies laughing at you. You turn around and check the timer on the cruxtruder. It says you have ten minutes. That's not too bad. Just enough time to message Zayies and gather up the things you need. 

SP: O not nice O  
TW: ahh, but so satisfying. 

While you're in your room, you try to see how it will work. Pretty simple. So you go to the bathroom and get the card from the toilet. You go all the way to the totem lathe and carve to totem needed. You had actually thought to bring a totem from downstairs, rather than being stupid and having to go back down all the time. 

Two things are now following you by your shoulder. One is your kernelsprite. A light indigo colour. The other is Zayies with the lid from the cruxtruder, poking you with it whenever she can. You really hope that she doesn't prototype it with that. 

You hope she doesn't prototype it at all. Not yet. You have something in mind for that. Once, when you were out fishing, you found this Octopus that had been harpooned. You took it with you to be eaten later, but you took so much pity on it, that you decided to keep it. You tended to it. It died recently, and you were keeping it in a temperature controlled room. You were hoping, if possible, to prototype that. 

Priority one right now was still to alchemise your item. You set it up. It alchemises a sponge. Yeah, you think that's a bit strange, but it's no matter. You pick it up and take it with you downstairs. The room you're looking for is to the left of the kitchen, still partly underwater actually. It's one of the few closed off rooms in your house. While you're there, you check the time on the cruxtruder. It reads two minutes. 

You go in, and struggle to lift it into the kernel. Zayies picks it up and actually helps you. She also throws in the lid from the cruxtruder, but it's no matter. Your sprite is now a purple octopus with a Spirograph design and a harpoon still stuck in its belly. When you were tending to it, you found that you couldn't take the harpoon out with out harming the creature more. So you kept it. 

Satisfied, with a helpful sprite and your item all alchemised, it's time to activate it and enter the medium. Not that you know how. It's different every time. More noises come from the water. You go closer to the water to see if you can hear what it is. Another noise from behind you startles you. You turn around expecting it to be Zayies again, but it's not. It's your sprite. Right in your face. You jump back and once again fall into the water. It's a good thing you hadn't dried off from last time or anything. Heaven forbid you be comfortable. You're running out of dry clothes. 

The sponge that was still in your hand is submerged along with your lower half when you tried to catch yourself. Unbeknownst to you, the timer ticks down its last seconds. The sponge expands in your hand. It continues to expand exponentially. It takes over your hand, then your arm, then it expands into the room. For a bit all you can see is purple. Then it stops clouding your vision and everything seems unchanged. But you have entered the medium. 

 

You are now Elelin's dream self. 

 

 

You wake up on prospit like every time you fall asleep. Whenever you do, it's like a whole new experience for you. You remember next to nothing from your everyday life, or from prospit. You remember one of the prospitians though, because he seems to come see you each time. You're used to him. You also remember prospit itself, and the people who inhabit it. When you are awake, you remember it as a vivid dream, and don't believe it's real. And that's all that you can remember. 

You don't usually fly. If you flied around or explored, you might remember more. But usually you just talk about whatever is on your mind. Your mind is a very odd topic. It has very little memories from either side, and while knowing nothing about the game, or anything important really awake or asleep, your brain has a tendency to know everything about the game or everything important while it is it's dream self. 

Meaning basically, that you are very good at creating prophecies. Your dream self, being you now, is nothing like your normal self. It is simultaneously perpetually confused and nearly omniscient, at least about certain things. Mostly things relating to doom. Even though in waking hours, for instance, no one ever told you that your world was ending, in a half state of mind, you predicted the doom of your world. Gaia did indeed get destroyed. 

You've predicted other bits of doom too. Mostly in riddle form. An old one being "when the two dogs unite by the foot of the hunter, night will fall but light will shine anew." Very few people ever hear you muttering a though, let alone listen to your predictions. The person who listens the most often is the aforementioned prospitians that you call ER or Easy Recipient for how well he listens. 

The first time you mention prospit at all, is right before your waking self enters the game. But you don't know that. You woke up, and waited for your visit from ER. Sure enough he came to visit. 

"With the coming of the song, the golden city soon will fall." You tried hard to make sure that ER would understand. Well that's a lie. You just say what comes to mind. It's as new to you as to ER. And you very rarely understand it any better than he does too. He left right away. You had the rest of the night to yourself. 

The next time you woke up you were really quite lucid. Not many memories, but that's normal. ER didn't come. So you fly out the window. You look out at the beautiful moon. Another tower identical to the one you just came from looms in the distance. You decide to check it out. 

Upon coming to the tower, you find it's another bedroom. You look I'm the window. ER is in there. Someone else is too, they seem to be sleeping. It's Parida! You've never seen him in real life before it you just know it's him! It's great! You can talk to him in real life now!

You watch as he wakes up. His eyes are so pretty! You're going to have to ask him to pose for you later so you can draw him. He says something to ER and disappears. You wonder how he did that. That doesn't seem right. Oh well. 

"Hey ER! What happened just now? It's too bad I missed him. I'd have loved to talk to him! You know, in real life! I could see what he's up to, or just see what's up! I bet we could have talked about this new game we're playing together. Though he did promise that we'd get to see each other in the game. Oh well! I guess well see!" You kinda laugh to yourself. Then you leave. Time to go explore!

 

 

You are now Zayies. 

 

You've been trying to talk to Elelin since you last talked to Nikkas about the game. He said the world was in danger, and you've been worrying about Elelin ever since then. You're not supposed to tell her anything. That's been an agreement you've had with Parida for a while. But you want to makes he she's ok. She won't answer you for whatever reason. 

You talk to Nikkas after he messages you. You've been in a bad mood for a while. The thing with Elelin has been making you feel pretty bad. 

Talking to Nikkas just made you feel worse. Though it did remind you of the part of the game where you get to mess with his house. You take the advice he gave you and try to contact Parida. though Nikkas did warn you to do that in a couple of minutes.

That's the good part about your mood swings and mental strangeness. You have a knack for time, which is one of the reasons you can lose track of it so easily. It's very relative to you, and you can make it what you want. So you wait a couple minutes in a meditative trance and message Parida.

trazomWolfferl [TW] began pestering underTitans [UT]  
TW: lookk, I know you're busy, and dealing with some stuff, but can you checkk on Elelin for me?  
TW: I'm worriedd about her a bit  
UT: oh ue*h, no it's fine.  
UT: I me*n, I *m busu, but I need to check on her *nuw*u.  
UT: ...  
UT: no, she's fine. [ooks [ike she just went to s[eep in the midd[e of her bedroom, but other th*n th*t she's fine.  
UT: actuallu, I think I did the s*me thing too, so it's fine. She's fine.  
TW: thankk you. I told nik that I wouldn't play with him until I heard word from her.  
TW: I'm actually quite mad right now.  
UT: I'm prettu busu, but I h*ve some time if uou w*nt to t*[k.  
TW: oh. Yeahh, thanks. Are you sure you're okk? your quirk is back, but you're saying fine a lot.  
UT: no, I'm fine, go, ta[k.  
TW: rightt.  
TW: ok, welll anyway, he's just being a dickwad. He's being insensitive to my caringg about my matesprit.  
TW: not like he's ever going to have any of his quadrantss filled.  
TW: I mean, you don't even understand the conceptt in full and you're still better than he is!  
TW: and then when I askk about you to make sure you're ok, he insultss my vocabulary!  
UT: ueah, I get that.  
UT: he's not good *t expressing concern, or c*ring about peop[e's sensitivities.  
TW: oh well, I'll gett my revenge.  
UT: m*ybe sooner th*n you think.  
TW: hm?  
UT: uou're his server, right?  
UT: uou c*n screw with him *[[ you w*nt.  
TW: that's right, isn't itt...  
UT: wh*t?  
TW: hehehehehehhehehehheheheheheheh

 

So you talk to Nikkas again to set up as his server. It's relatively simple. You see that you automatically get 1000 units of build grist. Even though there are a couple of hives burning around your neighborhood, you still don't feel much pressure. They'll mostly leave you alone. So you can't resist. You immediately start to have fun with Nikkas's hive. You do a shitty paint job, open all doors in the hive, and start to make stairs that go over the water in no direction in particular over the water. The stairs were expensive too. You left him with no grist. 

He pesters you about doing your actual job. So, of course, you comply. You be as difficult as possible. Out everything as far away from each other as possible. You then help him by getting the cruxtruder open for him. You take an entire section of his kitchen and drop it on the cruxtruder directly above his head. You get to watch as he runs for his life as you make the island float above his head and you laugh so hard when you drop it and he manages to trip into the water. He just kind of lies there. So funny. 

You then follow him around for a while with your mouse, poking him with the lid from the cruxtruder. You basically got your revenge but you're still going to make his life difficult in the least lethal way possible. You're not evil. Making sure Elelin was ok out you in a slightly better mood. Once you helped him make his sprite the way he wants, you basically leave him alone. Mostly. 

So now it's your turn. You're supposed to talk to Elelin to get you into the game. Yay that'll be nice! It's been ten minutes, you're sure she's bound to be awake by now. Maybe. 

trazomWolfferl [TW] began petering starkDressed [SD]  
TW: so are you awake yett?  
TW: sorry about all the stufff from earlier. I was worried  
SD: HahA! As sweet as that is, your concern was far from needeD.  
SD: I was dreaming on this place called prospiT!  
SD: It's so prettY! The golden citY. So many people and things to seE!  
TW: woah, that soundss awesome! I don't rememberr my dreams.  
SD: Too baD. I don't usually either, but this time I diD!  
SD: AnywaY.  
TW: oh yeah, do you want to set up with me noww?  
SD: YeS! That's right, it's your turN! It's pretty awesomE  
TW: then, to complete the chainn, let's play!  
SD: YesS 

You download the second program that you haven't already touched. You are in the game. 

Elelin deploys the devices. She tried to move the piano to make room for the alchemiter, but you flagged her down in time. Waving you arms in the air and jumping up and down. She graciously puts the piano back down. Then tosses out your recouperaccoon instead out the window. 

By the time you get downstairs to find the cruxtruder, she's already opened it for you. Once you come into view the kernelsprite floats right over to your shoulder. Without checking the time on the cruxtruder, you go right back upstairs back to your room. You don't know why, but you just don't feel like you need to know. You just know that you have time. 

Your priority is to prototype the sprite. You just have this sense, this sense that says that you shouldn't prototype it with anything dangerous. Although there is uncertainty behind the prospect, you still are going to be weary of what you prototype it with. there was nothing that warned you against Prototyping with anything dangerous but you figure there's still really no harm.  
Your first instinct is to take one of the instruments lying around your room. That will probably work pretty well. Parida said something about making sure to prototype it with something that might be able to communicate. That's really all music is, in your opinion. A way of communication. 

You look around your room for something suitable. You see your laptop in the corner and you can hear it getting notifications. It's probably Elelin warning you about the time. Sure enough there she is, with an Uncarved totem. She drops it on your head. You are unimpressed. Ignoring it, you decide to use the harp lying by your door. You throw it into the kernel. The golden harp turns turquoise. It immediately begins to strum on its ow. Ding. Dong. Ding. Dong. Two low notes, ticking in time with the clock. Ticking in time with the beat of your heart. 

You suddenly have an urge to make something. It's horribly timed, but you just got inspiration. Elelin is going to have a fit. Oh well. You take out a wooden clock from your drawer. It's got a pendulum like a very miniature grandfather clock. You rip off he clock face and add a small device that allows you to make the timer work either slower or faster than one beat per second. It's a perfect device for keeping time when you play music. You call it a metronome. For no reason whatsoever. It just seems to fit. You decide to actually check your messages. 

SD: Zay, you don't have much timE.  
SD: Zay, there's only five minuteS  
SD: Zay What the HeLL  
SD: You're running out of timE!  
SD: ZAY  
SD: Please Please AnsweR  
SD: You only have two minuteS!!  
TW: aha, sorryy bout that.  
SD: yOU HAVE ONE MINUTE ZAy!  
TW: ah, Yess. Rightt. I should deall with that.  
SD: yEs!

Aha whoops. You wasted a lot of time. You're still quite certain you could afford it. 

You know your metronome works. This still seems like the ideal time to slow down the time signature on the metronome. So you slow it down. 1/12 which would be twelve beats per minute, one fifth of normal clocks. The incessant ticking in your head keeping the beat of time suddenly slows down, as does the dinging of your harp sprite. 

Everything slows down. You look out the window at the flaming mob outside. Everything slowed down. Everyone appears to be moving at one fifth of the speed they should be moving at. Not only did you slow down the beat of the metronome. You slowed down the speed of time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So actually this is chapter three, I uploaded the first two together. 
> 
> Time to alchemise stuff! Is this really the normal session it seemed?

Chapter three 

 

You are now the thing that has been making noise in Nikkas's hive. 

 

You got in through one of the cages, hiding in with the fish whenever he came near. When all the doors to the cages magically opened, you came out as quietly as you could and hid in the pantry. You were interrupted suddenly when that door opened on you too, but you shut it again and pray that whatever force opened it didn't notice you hiding. The pantry is quite large. Big enough for two people to fit comfortably with everything else that's already in there. 

You are supposed to wait. You have your orders from your superior. You are to hide until a certain point, when you will then follow out your other orders. Your superior didn't tell you much about where you are going, but they did tell you what your goals are. Those, you will follow through with gusto. 

 

You are now Parida. 

 

 

You apparently woke up with no memory of being in prospit. Your sister in the hall told you you had been asleep. You look at the ring of orbs fourfold on your finger. It is a gold ring with nothing special on it, except for the four orbs along the edge. Three of the orbs are of a pearly colour. The fourth is a silver. 

Looking at the ring makes you remember a bit better. Yes. Now you remember prospit. You have no memory of actually sleeping though. Oh well. 

"Ariell," you start. "Where's everyone else?"   
"They left once we entered the medium. They're still mad at you, but they all got into the tank and left." She replies.   
That doesn't sound right to you. How exactly does she know about the medium?  
"How, how do you know about that?"  
"Oh, Aquata has been talking about it quite a lot. I don't particularly care for what they're plotting, but hell if I won't listen in on a couple of conversations they had behind closed doors." She smiles at you.   
"Plotting? That can't be good." Now you're really glad you intervened. You don't think it's by chance that your sisters were the only people who got taken along with you to the medium. Or maybe it was. Who knows. Either way, you don't think you were on the list of people who got to go on the trip if they had been in charge.   
"Haha, you know I can't tell you anything! That would ruin the fun!" She chuckles and goes back to ignoring you. 

You then get a message from Zayies. That's brings you out of your family affairs and back into the game mindset. There will be imps here soon. Other aspects of the game that take your attention. You turn to your sprite. 

"So, can you talk?"  
"Of course I am able to talk. I will answer any question you may have." It's voice is gender less and mechanical. Basically what you expected.   
"Now that I'm here, in the medium, what am I supposed to do?" Probably a stupid question. You're still going to try.   
"There are many things you are supposed to do. Ultimately, you are going to restore your race. Before that, you are to defeat the black king and queen, and eventually, you are to steal frogs and restore your forge with powers you don't know you have access to, but I suppose you are wondering what you are supposed to do right this moment." You have no idea what your sprite is talking about. black king and queen? Frogs? Forge? What power is it talking about? "Right now, you are to level up and climb your escheladder. Maybe reach the level above the level. After a while, you will be in charge of a task that is integral."  
"What task?"  
"You will see in time."  
"Ok, then what's the level above the levels?"   
"That's the god tier"  
"Not going to tell me anything else?"  
"No" well wonderful. You can't think of any better questions. 

Ok. In that case, it's time to level up. You assume that you basically just have to slay imps and other enemies. You decide to go outside to try to find them. Although you have one more thing. 

"What of the totem lathe?"  
"How do you mean?"  
"It is broken, yes?"  
"Yes."  
"So what's going to happen with that?"  
"I suppose I'll fix it."   
"Gee. Thanks. That'd be great." Your sprite is starting to piss you off. 

Ok time to leave. 

Outside you see your planet for the first time. Turns out your sprite actually followed you. Great. Time to ask about that. 

"What is this place?"  
"The medium. You said so yourself?"  
"Gee. I knew that. Where is this place. Here. This land."  
"This is your planet. Every player's planet is different. Yours here is called the Land Of Iron And Frogs, or LOIAF"   
"What does that mean?"  
"Each player's land is supposed to challenge them. Once you get through the first gate, you can then go explore the land a bit and meet the consorts. There are seven gates. Each will bring you deeper into your land and others."  
"What gates?" What the hell is it talking about? Wonderful. You don't know as much about this game as you had hoped.   
"Look up." You do. There are indeed seven gates above your house. What's left of your house. 

You go back to ignoring your sprite. You take a good look out at your land. It appears to be a very smooth iron surface riddled with a whole bunch of divots. These are presumably ponds. That's nice considering you didn't get to bring any food or water with you. There's no where to go, but you can walk out onto the land if you want. 

You go up to the nearest puddle. It's really not that big. It does have a couple frogs in it. You ignore them and cup your hands in the water. You call over to your sprite. It says the water isn't poisonous. You take a sip. This should not be your priority right now, but you want to know. 

The water tastes like blood. All the iron. Other than the mental image of drinking blood, it's not bad water. You stand up and turn around. There is an imp right behind you. You take your sword out of your strife sylibus. It's time for strife! 

The imp is wearing a shitty robe, similar to yours but not as nice. When you go to hit it with your sword, it electrocutes you a bit. A couple hits and it turns into bright blue build grist. You slew the Electric Blue Imp! You level up! You gain boon dollars! Your sword levels up! Great. 

Your hand hurts a bit. You're going to have to find something non conductible to wrap around your metal sword if you're going to be fighting these kinds of imps. There are no more on your land, but there are quite a few on your lawn now. Probably more inside. For now you roll your sleeve over your hand. Time to go imp hunting. 

Most of the imps are the same type of imp as the last time, but there are two other types as well. One is a green plant based imp and the other is a violet multi armed fish like one. You spend some time with that. You keep picking up grist along the way, a good few different types. 

After wasting some time leveling up and getting shocked to no end, you decide to go back inside to see if your sprite actually fixed your totem lathe. It actually did. Not very well though. It takes you a while to realize that your house is now five times taller than it used to be. Time to talk to Nikkas about that. 

UT: so wh*t's with mu house?  
SP: O it's a part of the game O To help you get up to the gate later O  
UT: how do know about that?  
SP: O I talked to my sprite O It suggested I build up your house O The first gate will bring you to another part of your land, and the second gate will bring you to my hive O  
UT: wait, your hive?  
SP: O house, we've been over thisO  
UT: no. I get that. The gate will teleport me to your part of the medium?  
SP: O yes O Yes O That's what I said O  
SP: O my second gate brings me to Zayies O  
UT: alright. That's cool then. I guess.   
UT: I'm going to see if I can fix this now. 

As much as you do actually want to fix the totem lathe as best you can, you also want to talk to your sister and see what she knows. Probably a lot from what you hear. You're not the only sneaky one. 

You're also going to want to help Elelin build up her house too. She doesn't have much grist, but it looks like Nikkas set up a program that let you all share, so that will help. 

 

You are now Elelin. 

 

Dealing with Zayies has been incredibly stressful. Incredibly stressful. She refused to look at her cruxtruder when it opened. She just grabbed her kernel sprite and left. Grr. You keep trying to tell her to hurry up, but she just ignored you and then started playing with this clock. She first broke it, then fixed it, but she sped it up! Not very useful. Five ticks every second. 

But the funny thing is, when it sped up, she sped up too. Started moving five times her normal speed. It was a unnatural. Once she sped up. She did everything else that she needed done really quickly, and was done alchemising her item by the time the counter reached ten seconds. Still pretty close, but she got it done. 

Her item was a drum. 

After you made sure she was all good, you decide to focus on the game a bit more. There are these little creatures who seem bent on destroying your house. You don't really need more destruction to deal with. You go all the way downstairs to deal with some imps. 

You take out your rapier and grab a flashlight from your sylladex. Fighting the imps isn't very difficult. Each time you hit them in what would be a non lethal place, they explode into grist. By that point you figured out that they're just an aspect of the game. Just low level enemies. So you continue to fight them with all you have. A good waste of time. 

You decide that you'll spend some of your well earned grist. You grab a bunch of totems. You take some of your cards from your vending machine sylladex. Most are empty, but one has your drawing tablet on it. That actually gives you an idea. You punch the card with the tablet on it with the tablet code. Oops now you can't get it back. Oh well close enough. You also punch the code for a pen on another card. And on another, you punch both codes. 

You go to your alchemiter and try putting the totem you carved with the two separate cards on the stand. It makes the InkyTablet! Completely useless. You try the || totem. It makes the Tablet Pen! Yes! You solved the problem of always losing the pen for the tablet! You make five of them. 

Now time for something more practical. You take your laptop and && it with a bracelet. You make the Bracelet top! A handy computing device conveniently on your wrist. You also take your phone and && it with a set of earplugs that you keep handy due to all the explosions you tend to make. You get a set of earplugs that also fontion as a computer!

And for some clothes. Of course! You take your skirt and shirt combination and || it together so it becomes one single dress. You then combine it with your dragon earring you always have. You first combine them with ||, creating the dragon swirl dress! It's a black dress with a silver dragon made of metal wrapping all around the dress and then down past it to the floor. It's so fancy! You then take the items and && it together. You make the Dragon Curl Dress! It is a black dress with silver highlights and a silver dragon wrapping around the entire thing. It's very elegant. You put it on. You take that and combine it with a painting from your room. You make the PaintSplatter!Dragon Curl Dress! It's the same thing but with different colors all over. It's a bright colour palate. 

You take the plain dress and combine it with a pterodactyl plush on your bed. You make the green pterodactyl dress! It's so cute! But you don't like the colour. So you && it with one of your purple pillows. Then you || it with your moirail's colour, turquoise. It makes the purple and turquoise Pterodactyl dress!  
You take the purple and turquoise pterodactyl dress and || it with your dragon earring. It ends up making a colorful dread on necklace with gradient wings and tail. Then you take the Dragon Ombré Necklace and combine it with a pair of fingerless gloves to create a pair of Fingerless Dragonscale Gloves! They are the same colour as the necklace with hard scales that don't break easily when you test them out. You put them on. They're n ice and lightweight too. You combine it with the code for your normal shirt and skirt, and then again with your shoes. You make Everyday Dragonscale Armor and Toeless Dragonscale Boots!

You then take your sneakers and make a whole bunch of other shoes. You make some boots, flats, and more sneakers. Shoes gave you a lot of leeway. You find this a lot of fun! You can remember this for making costumes later. You end this session by grabbing your bike from your room. Never know when you might need it. 

You fight some more imps after you're done making interesting stuff with the alchemiter. Soon after, Parida starts pestering you. 

underTitans [UT] started pestering starkDressed [SD]   
UT: th*nks for g*thering some grist for me.   
SD: Oh yeaH. What do you need it for anywaY?  
UT: I'm supposed to use it to m*ke uour house bigger so you c*n get to uour gates.   
UT: *lso, nikk*s insta[[ed a progr*m that lets us sh*re between the four of us.   
UT: uou can *lreadu get *[[ the w*u to uour third g*te. But ple*se go in order.   
SD: Uh, gateS? What am I supposed to dO?   
UT: my sprite isn't very he[pfu[[, but it's b*sic*[[u uou go through e*ch g*te to continue though the game.   
UT: there *re seven.   
SD: Oh, oK. Ye*h I'll do that theN. Pretty straightforward isn't iT?  
UT: so f*r, ues. Incredib[u so. Though it's most [ike[u going to get h*rder. 

You go outside to take a check of your surroundings, and your new house. Outside does not disappoint. Neither does your house. Outside you see your planet. Your lawn sits up on a dark grey brown hill. The look out on the land shows what looks like small grey brown snakes making hills all over. In between some of the hills, there are snaking rivers with silver beaches. The rivers are made of very flammable things, you notice. Rope, gasoline, magnesium. You make a note not to set anything on fire ever. 

Who are you kidding. There's no way that's not going to be set on fire at some point. You hope you won't be here when that happens. Oh well. 

Your house looks basically the exact same. Except that it's significantly taller. And you had thought it was tall before. You can see two gates above your house, with a bit of a green dot where you're sure the next gate is supposed to be.  
You go up. There are ladders to help you in certain places, and just more house in others. Parida stacked copies of the tower on top of itself multiple times. Then added ladders. It's taller than the first gate, so right around there there is just a very large platform with a ladder going right through the gate. It's not exactly easy to get to, but oh well. You make your way up anyway. 

Just as you start to climb the ladder, your sprite interrupts. Well it floats up and pokes you. It can't talk at all. It hands you a small pendant on a string. It has the same spirograph design you've seen so many times since staring the game. You nod to it and it floats away. You have absolutely no idea what it does, but you don't care. 

You go through the gate. It leads you to another part of your planet, very similar to where you were, but this part has small buildings and... Locals. They are small green pterodactyls. They come up to maybe your hip. They are really quite cute. 

You go up to one, to see if it can talk. And maybe tell you how to get back. "Hello?" You ask it. "MERP" it replies. Of course not. You'll have to find another way to gather information. "MERP?" "Oh sorry little guy. You are quite cute, aren't you." You tell it. No sense in being mean and ignoring it. It's still a creature. "I'm not cute." It says. "I'm manly as hell." Ok, so it can talk. Huh.   
"Aw, I'm sorry little guy. Can you tell me where this is?" Maybe it'll know.   
"You don't even know where you are? Boy you are weird. We're on the Land Of Mercury And Fuses! Also known as LOMAF. but I call it home."  
"Wait, so the whole planet looks like this?" LOMAF? What's that supposed to be? Did the game send you to an entire planet? Are the others here as well or is it just for you?  
"Yep! Some parts are more silvery too, but I like this hilly part better."  
"Thanks." You go to find some other locals. You go up to the first now you see. 

"Hi-" you start.   
"Merp! There sure has been a lot of rumbling coming from the earth lately! Must mean the denizen's waking up! Lore says that when a hero comes and defeats Hermes, the hills will disappear and the dragonflies will fly!"  
"Hero? What do you mea-"   
"There are supposed to be like maybe four heroes and apparently the best one is supposed to come here! Merp!"  
"Maybe fou-"  
"I don't know about any of the other heroes, just the one! Merp Merp merp!"

You walk away. You just. Walk away. You tried to be polite but this ones annoying. You go up to another. 

"Hello little guy. "  
"Merp!"  
"Hey have you heard anything about heroes that are supposed to come here?"  
"Everyone who's everyone Has heard of them! But only the Witch of doom will defeat the denizen underneath the ground! She's my favourite."  
"Do they have names or just titles?"  
"Just names like that. They're like superheroes! Whatever those are. Merp."  
"That's nice." You've basically figured out that they're talking about you. Even if they don't know it's you, persay. "What's a denizen? Who's Hermes?"  
"MERPMERPMERP SCARY SCARY SCARY or so I've been told. I certainly don't want to meet him! MERPMERPMERP"   
It keeps merping for a while, so you just leave. 

You continue on with asking the consorts about the denizen and the land and what your job is in the game. They're not very helpful at all. You do learn how to get to the denizen when you're going to need to. There is one pterodactyl that you just fell in love with. It was just a small baby, and it didn't speak like the others. You couldn't help but take it along. You still have a lot of searching left to go. 

 

You are now Nikkas. 

 

 

You helped Parida, you got everything done that needed doing. Now you're at a bit of a loss. You go over to the alchemiter to make some things. You we're given a lot of grist at the start, about 2000 units, and if you need any more at any point, you can just look for imps in the hall. You've basically just been upstairs the whole time. After grabbing a ton of totems from the cruxtruder, there wasn't much point to going back down. 

You made things such as the Goggle Top made by combining your goggles you wear for fishing and your laptop. They are waterproof, which is better than what you can say for your actual computer. You make different variations on this, You make some more clothes too, many copies of the same shirt you always wear, except clean and dry. You then screw around, trying to find interesting things to combine, like an arrow and a stapler, which ended up being useless.   
It's been a few hours by now. 

You hear a loud noise from downstairs. That was definitely not from your lusus. That was definitely from your kitchen. Millions of possibilities run through your head. Maybe it's an animal? The sound was too large. You think it was the broken pieces if your island that were clattering. That means it's a person. You aren't aware of any way to get in presently, so they would have had to been inside for a while, since before you entered the medium. Is it a friend or a foe? 

Either way, you get your crossbow ready and quietly go downstairs. Both arrows are notched, but you won't be able to reload quickly. So any shot will be the end of it. You don't get many visitors. You get to the kitchen. 

Nothing appears to be there at first glance. You'll have to go in farther. You peak around your icebox. On the other side of the island from where you are, there is indeed a person. A jade blooded male troll. He's shorter than you, but he does have his weapon out. A long bow. You step forward a bit and leave the wall behind you to face him. 

"Who are you?" You ask him. He just looks concerned that you're talking to him. He gets ready to shoot at you. He doesn't appear to have very good aim, his arrow shoots straight for your leg, and you jump to the side in time. 

This time it's your turn to shoot an arrow. You shoot them in quick succession. They both hit the island. Your aim was off. Great. The intruder jumps up from behind the obstruction instead of loosing another arrow. He comes at you with the bow raised. 

Your mêlée fighting isn't as good as it could be. But ultimately it's not hard to parry the loose stab. You take your crossbow and hit him in the side of the head. He goes down briefly, but not for very long. He foot sweeps you and you fall along with him. You roll away briefly and jump to your feet. The intruder does the same. You switch your crossbow to sword mode and get ready. You launch at each other and end up in a strange wooden sword fight. 

It turns out your goggle top managed to pick up the sound if you yelling at the intruder, and messaged zayies. She's been messaging you back. 

TW: what'ss wrong?   
TW: who are you talkingg to?  
TW: are you okk? Nikk?  
TW: yeah ok I'lll checkk my laptop.   
SP: djiwndkcisjebcoapwkbfncisigg

And at the perfect time, the intruder manages to catch you in the side and you let out a bit of a cry. She undoubtably heard it. Damn. 

TW: are you okk?!?  
TW: what the helll???  
TW: I'm checkingg now.   
You can't exactly wait for her to figure it out. There's no time to answer either. Oh well, she'll know when she figures it out. 

You're stronger than the person you're fighting. It doesn't take too long for you to overtake him. You've by this point moved closer to the water, and when you finally win the fight, the intruder lands in the water unconscious. It looks like your lusus left, probably to avoid conflict like it usually does. 

You stoop down to make sure he doesn't drown. That's when you notice the sign on his shirt. It's the sign for Canis Minor, the little dog. That's one of the signs that is almost never alone. It's always with its partner, the big dog. 

"Canis Minor?" You wonder out loud. "Where's Canis Major?" You ask out loud, right before your head explodes in hit pain and everything goes black

 

You are now Zayies from a few hours ago

 

You got in the medium fine. It took a while to remember to turn off the metronome, and so you ended up going at very high speeds for a while. In the meantime, you started trying to alchemise some new items. Priority number one is clothes. You grab a totem, and make a new pair of boots, with mixing yours with some of your paint. You then have to go back downstairs to get more totems, and by the time you get back, you've forgotten your making clothes. 

You take a lyre and mix it with a long wood block. You end up making the Violin! It'll be fun to play once you get the time. You take a trumpet and && it with a tuba and make a French Horn! You || the same combination! and make a Trombone! This will make creating instruments much easier. 

You also combine your computer and a cow bell to make a Cell Phone! Well that's neat. It does all the things your compute does, but with the shape of a cow bell. You make five of them in different colours. 

By this time you've put time back to normal again. It's about time you check on your lusus. It usually gets hungry of lonely when you leave it alone for too long. You haven't fed it yet. It's your first time actually going downstairs in a couple hours real time. 

Downstairs there are two very confused male humans. They both have torches like all the people from the mob earlier had, but theirs had since gone out. They are standing in your entranceway looking out the open door. When they notice you, they both have a face of both relief and anger. That seems about right. Seeing anyone would be refreshing, but they were anti trolls protesters after all. 

You shrug and join them at the door. You look out at your land. Behind you your harp sprite sings the happy tune of your land. It is an intricate song, very golden with an ever changing beat. Looking out on it it looks very coppery, with a million tiny swirls, almost like chains, but too static, wrapping around each other. An infinity of infinities signs. The ground, though appearing static, is moving in small circles, but like gears on a clock, but in whatever direction it pleases. Overhead thunderclouds give off a bright warm light throughout he land, and flashes of electricity light up the sky. 

Your lusus is nowhere to be found. She is probably running off somewhere, chasing the lightning. The song of the harp, though beautiful, startles the humans. They seems to almost snap back to thought. They look at you and the sprite and the copper land of timing. They are confused and scared, and that makes humans do stupid things. 

 

"You monster!" One cries at you. "You've sent us here!"  
"I suppose," you answer. You don't particularity care about these humans. Unless they manage to anger you. "I just brought myself here. You were the ones who intruded on my hive. Bad timing."  
"Where's everyone else?" The slightly calmer one asks.   
"Why would I know?" You tell them. The calm one is nice  
"Where is everyone?!" The angry one is less nice.   
"Hey. I don't know ANYTHING. Any MORE than YOU do!" Yeah ok, you lost your temper. Really doesn't take much.   
"What did you do with all the humans, you stupid alien!?" The mean one has at this point taken his frying pan strife specibus out and is ready for a fight. You are too, with your staff out at the ready. The calm one is weary, but staying out of the fight until he's needed.   
"THIS is NOT any FAULT of MINE" this probably didn't need to get this bad. But they started it.   
"You troll!" He spits.   
"You FUCKer!" You don't understand what all the fuss about race is. Who cares if someone's a troll or a human. If someone's an asshole, they're an asshole. Race doesn't matter. 

However, yeah. You two launch at each other. When the fight started, you were further inside, In order to claim your hive, but now you're both at the door. You run at each other with your blunt weapons. 

Before you can do anything though, the calmer human gets in between you two. The two of them are friends, and you don't want to hurt anyone that doesn't need to be. That was still a pretty big gamble, but you both stop mid swing. 

"Stop!" He yells. "You," he points at his friend, "you and I can take this up later. We have other things that need doing now. And you!" He points at you this time. "You just get to your first gate." He has a steaming kind of calm hatred for you. 

That's strange. That's not the last you'll be seeing of him for sure. 

Oh well. They both leave. They start out into the endless copper. You'll be able to watch them for miles. You don't though. You look around for your lusus. Nothing within sight on the land. It is fast though, so who knows. You turn on your cell phone. 

You keep skulking around your hive, trying to calm down. You need to talk to Elelin again. 

trazomWolfferl [TW] continued pestering starkDressed [SD]  
TW: there were people here justt now.   
TW: my lusus rann away too. What shouldd I do?  
SD: Oh my god you were so adorable as a babY! Or I guess gruB.   
SD: Wait there were peoplE?  
TW: yeahh there were. They were in myy home and we fought. Lots of yellingg.   
TW: waitt me as a grub?  
SD: Oh geez is everything oK?  
TW: yeah it is noww. They weren't that bad I guesss. The one wasn't badd at all. They're gone noww.   
SD: That's gooD. What were they even doing therE?  
TW: nott sure. The one I wass fighting with didn't like me. Welll he wasn't a fan of trolls. Though the calm one seemedd to know some stuff about the game...  
SD: I seE.   
TW: okk but what was with the grub?  
SD: Ok you are just SOOO cutE! You keep runningg around and fallin!  
SD: It's SOOO AWESOMe  
SD: Their little legS! All six of thEm! SIX  
SD: Their liittle horns!!!  
SD: Oh wow they're actually quite fasT.   
TW: what are you talkingg about?  
SD: They aren't staying where I put theM.   
SD: Dammit daMmit dammiT  
SD: NOOO I CAnT TELL YOU APART NOW  
SD: That is the most adorable thinG  
SD: I CANT I JUST CANT EVEN  
SD: ow  
SD: Ok grubs bitE  
SD: ooh ok their going off on their own now.   
SD: oh no baby par is climbing on these tube things.   
SD: hopy crap why is he so good at that.   
SD: come back here you little prick.   
SD: ok I can't climb any more. One of the danrues just latched on-  
SD: wow are highbloods strong. Whichever one he is  
TW: do you have baby picturess of us or something?  
TW: and how do you not know who Nikkas is? The danrues?  
TW: it's not like we have any ancestorss, not like you.   
SD: I've never seen him beforE. OOH he's so cute though! Little flappy TAIL~  
SD: aw look at little me and little granny aw we're ganging uP~  
SD: aw and there go the others TOO THEYRE ADORABLE  
SD: and mischeaveious. BAd babiES  
SD: you are actuALLY THE ONLY NORMAL ONE Z  
SD: YOU ACTUally are!  
SD: we are so cute. But so CrazY!  
TW: I see. Haha.   
TW: you done noww?   
SD: yep! I was just about to talk to you about this actuallY.   
TW: thankss for talking. I was going to askk you to help calm me down from the fight but that works.   
SD: Sorry bout thaT  
TW: it's okk.   
SD: Have you asked your sprite about anythinG?  
TW: I did aboutt my lusus. It told me it ran to the eastt, but didn't give any more info.   
SD: OH. Too baD.   
TW: I'll ask it about where to go nextt.   
TW:....  
TW: yeah it said I had to go on an adventure, but didn't tell be where. It told be it wouldn't be easy though.   
SD: HelpfuL.   
SD: For now just try going through your gateS. I've built up your house a bit so you'll be able to go through a feW.   
TW: ok thankss. Willl do!  
SD: I have to go now, sorrY! Take care of these tykeS!  
TW: oh, would you telll nik about what you found? He'll be interested in this crap. He loves believing in things that don't existt.   
SD: Yeah, oK!

 

That was an interesting conversation. Looks like your sprite won't be as helpful as hoped. 

Suddenly you hear Nikkas from your phone. He sounds angry, and kind of afraid.   
SP: O Who are you?! O

Is this a prank? You wouldn't put it past him. You ask if he's ok. After what you just encountered, you are skeptical. You share Nikkas's feelings. So you care a bit more than usual. You keep checking in on him. When you finally do hear back from him, it's just static and background sounds. 

You know it's real for sure though when he lets out a cry. He would never show weakness like that to you unless it's real. You go upstairs to your computer. 

You get there just in time to watch Nikkas end the fight and take the guys head out of the water. You do t get there in time to warn him about the second intruder that comes up behind him. You just get to yell,

TW: shitt! 

Before he takes his weapon and knocks Nikkas out. Who is that? Why are they here? You don't know of anyway for anyone to have gotten there, so they must have tagged along like those humans. If they've been fighting your comrade though, they are bad news. 

You grab a piece of the broken island on the ground and poke it at the intruder. He doesn't seem as concerned about the flying piece of wood and stone as you would have expected. He doesn't move away when you poke him so you drop it right in front of him. You get more pieces and pelt him with them from the direction of the water. 

It seems to work, because he grabs his friend and leaves Nikkas alone. You try to move him to a better place, but it looks like the program won't let you move people. So instead you build him a fort out of the broken island. You probably spend way too much time on that. 

Beside you, your sprite's song changes, which reminds you to look around the house more to see if you can see anything else awry. It's all probably gone now, the intruders probably managed to escape onto his land. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a flash of blue from above the roof. 

It's Parida!  
He's falling!

He's falling from the gate above. You grab the recouperaccoon from inside and bring it out onto the roof underneath him. He lands in the sopor slime back first. It catches his fall and he seems ok. He looks up at the sky, probably looking for you. 

Getting out his phone, he takes one look at it covered in slime and throws it away. You'll have to wait to talk to him. How'd he get there anyway? It was pretty lucky you looked there in time too. He shakes himself off a bit. 

After you make a set of stairs for him to climb in the window, he logs onto Nikkas's computer. 

[UT] started pestering [TW]   
UT: th*nks. Th*t w*s uou right?  
TW: yepp! Happy I could helpp!  
UT: just wondering, wh*t w*s th*t I [*nded in?  
TW: that was Nikk's recouperaccoon. It's like one of your bedss.   
UT: I see.   
TW: how did you gett here?  
UT: the second g*te *bove our houses le*ds here. We[[, to the next p[*yer in the ch*in.   
TW: oh.  
TW: oh rightt!   
TW: you should probably help Nikkas.   
UT: he[p him?  
UT: wh*t the he[['s wrong?!?  
TW: woah what'ss with the panicking?  
UT: uou're just never very emp*thetic with him.   
UT: most[y unhe[pfu[  
TW: hahahahaha! That'ss so true!  
TW: haha! No but actually he's unconscious right now.   
UT: s[eeping?  
TW: oh no nothing like thatt.   
TW: someone broke in and he lost the fightt  
UT: ZAY   
TW: whatt?  
UT: what happened?  
TW: actually I'm nott sure.   
TW: somehow there are people on this planet.   
UT: how could anyone get here?  
TW: well, I think thatt they might have hitchhiked.   
TW: I got a couple, but they didn'tt know what's going on.   
TW: these two knew whatt they were doing.   
TW: they hidd, and then caught Nikkas and me off guardd.   
UT: how long has it been? Where are they?  
TW: somewhere on his landd. That's all I got.   
UT: mm great.   
TW: yeah sorry! :)  
TW: he's downstairs in the fort I made him  
UT: ok. I'[[ go check on him now.   
TW: thaaanks~   
TW: I'm going to have to go now though.   
UT: ah  
UT: ok.   
TW: bye~~

you're going to see if you can find the humans again. Keep an eye on them. There are a lot of imps hanging around. 

There certainly seems to be a lot of mystery in the medium. 

 

Ultimately you decide to try to work on your musical language for a little while longer. 

 

Years into the future, but not many

 

An oval oblong structure sets down by some ruins I'm the cold hot desert. Pure black carapace steps put of the hard metal of the once flying lab. She steps into the dry air and looks out at the ruins and looks out at the two other labs by the ruins. She grabs her trusty Sharp Object and hold it tightly to her chest. She wants all the security she can get. The desert can be scary.


End file.
